Engie Starts 350-MW Hybrid Solar Storage Project Near Santiago Capital

• Engie Chile launches USD 310-million Libélula hybrid plant—151 MWp solar array and 199 MW battery—to power 120 000 homes and advance its 3.5-GW roadmap.

French energy major Engie has broken ground on its first renewable complex in Chile’s Santiago Metropolitan Region, a USD 310-million venture that fuses photovoltaic generation with utility-scale storage. Dubbed Libélula—Spanish for “dragonfly”—the project will rise 40 km north of the capital and pair 151 MWp of solar panels with a 199-MW lithium-ion battery capable of discharging for five hours straight.

When the facility comes online in Q3 2026, Engie estimates it will deliver enough clean electricity to cover the annual consumption of about 120 000 households. The build includes a new substation and a 16-kilometre, 220-kV transmission line that will tie the plant into the national grid at El Manzano, bolstering reliability across Chile’s central power corridor.

Libélula also marks a regional first in equipment choice. The array will mount 245 560 photovoltaic modules on 2 311 NX Horizon trackers made by California-based Nextracker. Produced in a U.S. electric-arc furnace, the low-carbon steel frames are expected to cut associated manufacturing emissions by roughly 30 percent, adding a sustainability dividend to the plant’s operating profile.

For Engie Chile, the venture is a cornerstone in its plan to reach 3.5 GW of installed capacity by 2027, more than 60 percent of which will come from renewables and battery storage. Managing director Axel Leveque said the hybrid design “combines the immediate benefits of solar with the dispatch flexibility of a peaker plant—only without the fossil fuel,” positioning Libélula to capture premium prices during Chile’s evening demand spikes.

Chile’s broader energy roadmap calls for retiring up to half of its coal fleet by the decade’s end and raising the share of renewables in its generation mix to 70 percent. Analysts say hybrid installations like Libélula will be critical in smoothing the variability of wind and solar as thermal units go dark.

Construction crews are already clearing land and preparing foundations, with peak activity expected later this year. Engie predicts the project will create more than 400 on-site jobs during the build phase and a dozen permanent roles once commercial operations begin—a small but tangible boost for local communities as Chile accelerates toward a low-carbon grid.